The start of the main event of the World Series of Poker Europe 2011 (WSOPE) took place this weekend. If during the last edition of London, the event attracted 346 participants, organizers managed to record a field of 587 players at this edition 2011. Indeed, 310 competitors made by several top players registered for the tournament in the poker room of Casino Barrière of Cannes to try to succeed James Edge, the winner of the previous edition on Day 1A. The day ended after six levels of play of 90 minutes each. And at the end of the competition, there were only 173 survivors for 2 days. Carlos Mortensen finished in the place of chipleader with 157,000 chips in hand. But all a team of great players are still part of the list of survivors like Johnny Chan, who is second with 150,000 chips in hand, Ben Lamb, John Duthie, Erik Seidel, Olivier Busquet, Phil Collins, Jennifer Harman, Jeff Lisandro and Scott Seiver. On the French side, Arnaud Mattern, Nicolas Levi and Quentin Ettlin are also well positioned for the rest of the tournament.

On Day 1B, 276 players were registered to attend the event. As on Day 1A, great figures of poker were found in the starting field as Michael Mizrachi, Antoine Saout, Guillaume Darcourt and Bertrand Grospellier. But at the end of the day, it was Bruno Benveniste who finished as chipleader with 120,000 chips. Among the pros who qualified during this day 1B, there are Tommy Vedes, Tony G, Scotty Nguyen, Fabrice Soulier, Filippo Candido and Benny Splinder.